CONTRA DICTIONS

DOUBTS AND WONDERINGS. FAITH AND WONDERMENT. SORROW AND JOY.   This is a set of poems that attempts to express the inherent contradictions of life as I experience it. A life of inklings and epiphanies as well as bleakness. Of moments that point to a significance that so often seems to exist just outside the reach of human comprehension. Or of mine at least! Making even the ordinary extraordinary. Contradictions that become Contra Dictions. Competing truths that coexist and seem equally valid to my mind. And some that simply relapse into ironic self-mockery. While underlying everything is the ultimate contradiction. God's seeming absence, leading to feelings of abandonment that so often mask his constant, comforting presence. But also giving way to times of revelation that shower upon us those gifts of Grace that make for a life that is ever surprising and always worth the living. These revelations can come to us through the love of family, in the creating power of words, or out of the depths of music that resounds more powerfully than simple speech could ever do. All of which and more I hope that you may find in this collection. My greatest wish is that within these pages you may recognise, and embrace in your own mind and heart, some of those contradictions in human life that I have found. And accept in your own life the gifts that they bring.